A Secret Dialogue between Washington and Havana over the Last 50 Years

Lisa Howard, reporter in 1964 was one of the secret emissaries from the government of USA to talk with Havana. Here in this photo she is with Fidel Castro, some cuban officials and Ernesto Che Guevara.

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Book Cover of “Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations between Washington and Havana, by Peter Kornbluh and William LeoGrande

While the history of U.S.–Cuba relations is littered with acts of aggression–CIA assassination plots, the Bay of Pigs invasion, the trade embargo– the story of back-channel communications and attempts at reconciliation is less well-known but far more relevant to the policy debate today.

Today, I am airing a conference that took place few days ago at the Center for Latin American Studies at Stanford University. The lecturer was Peter Kornbluh. He is the director of the National Security Archive’s Chile Documentation Project and of the Cuba Documentation Project,  and came to talk about his latest book called “ Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations between Washington and Havana”. This book talks about the lost opportunities during the last 50 years to enter a more peaceful and productive relationship between Cuba and United States of America. It is filled filled with copies of papers, notes, transcripts of recordings, photographies, memos and all kind of documentation that has been “unclassified” and archived.